Woolly Bear Natives

10/31/2026

Happy Halloween!! 🎃
At the latest plant sale my costume was a host plant. I wore all green and covered myself with needle felted woolly bear caterpillars. Thank you fiber artist for hand crafting these for me!! I've wanted to do this for a long time!

10/22/2026

We'll be vending at this weekend's Plant Native! Festival, in Henrico County at Dorey Park! This free-to-attend event is organized by Keep Henrico Beautiful, and celebrates Virginia native plants and the wildlife they support!

Tons of free plant giveaways, vendors, local plant growers, local businesses, food trucks, state organizations and non-profits, workshops, a Halloween costume contest for adults and kids, and more!

Event details are here: https://henrico.gov/utility/keep-henrico-beautiful/native-plant-festival/

Massive thank you to the county, volunteers, and organizations who make this event possible!

10/04/2026

Very cool story and worth a read. Speaks to the ability of private landowners taking part in helping biodiversity.

Habitat loss is likely behind the bees’ long absence. But they may have been here all along.

10/03/2026

WBN Open House TODAY 10am - 2pm, rain or shine! Fall is a fantastic time for planting, and we have tons of local Virginia species! Come check out our little nursery!

LOCATION: near Lakeside Ave & Wentworth Ave, Lakeside, VA 23228. Look for an open house sign at the intersection of Lakeside & Wentworth Avenues. Follow the signs to our location! We're the only house with a massive boulevard garden in bloom, so it should be pretty easy to spot us! (We won't post our exact address online since it's private property.)

We'll be in the back yard!

PARKING: Parking is *limited* and only available first-come first-serve on the street. Please be careful of oncoming traffic, and don't block any of our neighbor's driveways!

09/28/2026

Viburnum nudum, known as smooth witherod, possumhaw, or wild raisin, is a shrub inhabiting wetlands, swamps, edges of ponds and streams, and even seasonally standing water. It prefers moist soils, but can also grow in average garden soils that don't fully dry. Depending on conditions, it can grow between 6 - 12 feet tall, forming a broad, multi-stemmed shrub, though it stays shorter in average gardens, and is a lovely foundation specimen.

This deciduous plant has attractive glossy, dark green leaves. In late spring to early summer it produces large clusters of cream-white flowers. Its fruits develop in clusters that ripen through several striking colors—green, white, pink, red, and finally deep blue to blue-black. Different stages occur on the same cluster, creating a unique multicolored display. Fruit formation is increased with having multiple shrubs nearby, so for berries consider planting at least two nearby each other.

The common name "wild raisin" refers to the fruits, which become wrinkled and raisin-like as they mature. The fruits are an important food source for songbirds and other wildlife. Birds such as thrushes, bluebirds, and other fruit-eating species may feed on the berries, particularly later in the season when other foods become scarce. In fall, the leaves turn bright shades of pink, red, burgundy, or purple before dropping.

Our plants are propagated by seed from wild populations in Henrico County and Richmond County, Virginia.

09/28/2026

Woolly Bear Natives will be open for in-person shopping on two dates this fall!

We have open houses including one this Saturday October 3rd, from 10:00am - 2:00pm at our location in the Lakeside neighborhood of RVA!

What's for sale? See link below for a list of over 50 species, including ecotypes and prices / pot sizes we expect to have for sale at the October 3rd open house: https://tinyurl.com/2nkd82z3

LOCATION: near Lakeside Ave & Wentworth Ave, Lakeside, VA 23228. Look for an open house sign at the intersection of Lakeside & Wentworth Avenues. Follow the signs to our location! We're the only house with a massive boulevard garden in bloom, so it should be pretty easy to spot us! (We won't post our exact address online since it's private property.)

PARKING: Parking is *limited* and only available first-come first-serve on the street. Please be careful of oncoming traffic, and don't block any of our neighbor's driveways!

ABOUT US: Woolly Bear Natives is a small, queer-owned central Virginia native plant nursery opened in 2024! We're two husbands growing well over 100 species of central Virginia ecotype, collected and propagated sustainably from wild populations, meaning 99% of what we sell are straight species, uncultivated, some rarely available in the nursery trade.

09/14/2026

My new obsession is plants in the genus Coreopsis (recently meshed with the genus Anacis), known as the tickseeds. Many in the genus have seeds which stick onto clothing and fur, which help in their dispersal.

Coreopsis tripteris (synonymous with Anacis tripteris) is called the tall coreopsis, or the tall tickseed, aptly named because it grows between 3 to 9 feet tall when in flower. It blooms in summer with sunflower-like yellow inflorescences and dark red-brown centers, visited by small native bees, butterflies, beetles, moths, and native flies.

Tickseeds are favored by small birds for forage, such as the brilliantly colored goldfinch, which pick the ample bounty of seed even as flowers are still in bloom. Tall tickseed is also a host plant for several pollen specialist bees, and a larval host for butterflies, such as the Silvery Checkerspot (Chlosyne nycteis).

Coreopsis tripteris prefers average to moist, clay, sandy, or loamy soils, and prefers very high sun. Tolerant of part sun, it's an option for forest edges and open woodland gardens. It has a rhizomatous habit, meaning it spreads underground to form colonies, usually by a few inches in size each year. It also seeds itself well on open ground, but in dense meadow communities its spread is limited.

In a formal garden, Coreopsis tripteris may be staked, or supported by a tomato cage to prevent flopping. Planting densely with other plants increases root competition and reduced excessive growth. Plants stay shorter in less sun and drier soils. Pruning the stems in late spring or early summer with a "Chelsea Chop" reduces height without sacrificing blooms.

However, its appeal for us comes from its slender columnar habit, and loose airy appearance, which mesh beautifully in meadows and pollinator gardens. The plants we sell were propagated from a wild population in Hanover County.

09/13/2026

Ceanothus americanus is commonly called the New Jersey Tea, a compact, deciduous, long-lived native shrub with clusters of fragrant white flowers in late spring to early summer. Combining resilience, beauty, and high wildlife value, the New Jersey tea is a perfect low-maintenance shrub.

Historically, the leaves of New Jersey tea were used as a substitute for imported tea during the American Revolutionary War, giving rise to its common name. The leaves have a wintergreen scent and taste similar to a minty green tea. Native Americans harvest the red roots and root bark of this species for medicinal uses.

New Jersey Tea is an ecological powerhouse. Its flowers attract a diversity of pollinators, including bees, wasps, butterflies, and skippers, while its seeds are eaten by wild turkeys, quail, and other ground-feeding birds. Importantly, it serves as a larval host plant for several butterfly species, including the Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon), Summer Azure (Celastrina neglecta), and Mottled Duskywing (Erynnis martialis), the latter of which is considered rare or declining in parts of its range.

Its strong, deep and fibrous root system makes it excellent for stabilizing dry and rocky slopes, and mean it is naturally drought adapted. This species does not like to be relocated once planted, so care should be taken when deciding its location. Additionally, this species poorly tolerates heavy clay and slow draining, consistently wet soils.

The white blooms turn to nutlet-like seeds which resemble miniature beans. While not a true legume, New Jersey Tea is a nitrogen-fixing plant, and its seeds respond well to a hot water treatment for simplifying winter germination.

09/12/2026

Cynanchum laeve is a native vining plant known as honeyvine milkweed. This typically weedy species is remarkable for its ability to act as a host plant for monarch caterpillars, and it thrives in often neglected spaces.

Honeyvine milkweed is a member of the dogbane family, same as your typical milkweed. It sports the same chemical composition as milkweeds which monarchs rely upon to reproduce. Easy to confuse with invasive morning glories, Cynanchum laeve will release the typical dogbane white sap if stems or leaves are broken.

It is a powerful spreader by wind disbursed seed and deep roots, often growing where not wanted in a formal garden or lawn. However the clusters of white blooms along its vines are huge magnets for bumblebees, and smell strongly of honey. It finds purchase on chain link fences and sprawls until it finds purchase.

Monarch butterflies will find it to lay their eggs, if other flowering plants attract them to its location. If you run out of food for hungry caterpillars, honeyvine milkweed will work just as great in a pinch.

In central Virginia this is one of those 'you probably have it on your property somewhere' plants, so we don't intend to provide it except perhaps as seed in the fall.

09/11/2026

Physostegia virginiana is called 'obedient plant,' commonly found in moist meadows, wet woodlands, and stream banks. Despite the delicate appearance, it's a vigorous and adaptable specimen that has gained popularity in cultivation, forming substantial colonies through underground rhizomes.

Obedient plant's ability to tolerate periodically wet soils makes it useful for rain gardens, ditches, pond edges, and other sites where drought-adapted perennials drown. Though it grows just fine in average soils, if given time to establish. Its propensity to spread and multiply means it should be planted with special attention. We love it in informal wild plantings.

Obedient plant typically grows 2–4 feet tall on stout square stems, owing to being a mint relative. From mid to late summer, tall bloom spikes emerge with tubular, two-lipped flowers in shades of pink, lavender, or white. The flowers open gradually along the spike, creating a long-lasting display especially attractive to long-tongue native bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. The small black seeds are picked by birds in winter.

The common name "obedient plant" comes from a unique characteristic of the flowers; if pushed or rotated to the side of the stem, they will remain in their new position—at least temporarily. The appearance of the flowers gives it another name, the false dragonhead.

Several Physostegia occur through Virginia. Physostegia virginiana ssp. virginiana (what we sell; a strong rhizomatous habit and preference for moist soil) and Physostegia virginiana ssp. praemorsa (with short rhizomes, clumping habit, and preference for drier soil). Physostegia leptophylla (the slender false dragonhead) sports narrow leaves, and grows in tidal regions of southeast Virginia, including in standing water.

(Photo credits portablecity on iNaturalist)